1. Field of the Invention
The present invention deals with a method for performing word processing and particularly a method of manipulating and outputting composite characters.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Other word processing systems have the ability to have an operator enter text into the system, edit and revise the text, and then print the text by use of an output device which may be a matrix printer, a letter quality printer, a line printer or a laser printer. Most of these output devices have a fixed character set which they are capable of producing when they print a line of information. These character sets are known as fonts and depending upon the particular device, a printer may have 129 characters, 96 characters, or some other predefined number of character graphics within its font. Within these fonts one usually finds various punctuation characters as well as upper and lower cases characters and the numbers 1 through 0.
Because these output devices have a limited number of characters within their fonts, it is often the case that a particular character graphic that is required is not available in the font of the output device on which the document is to be printed. This case of not having the desired character graphics in the font can authorize if a standard US character set is to be used to output a document in a foreign language which has accents over some its characters. In such cases, it is often the case that all the required alphabetic characters are available in the font of the output device and used and that that font may also contain a punctuation character that can be used as an accent mark. Therefore, both the alphabetic character and the accent mark can be printed in the same space the required alphabetic character with the accent mark can be produced in the output document. At least one known system appears to provide this capability by allowing the operator the ability to first enter one of the characters followed by a backspace and followed by the second character such that in order to print an A with an accent over it, the operator would first enter the A and then a backspace and then the accent character and this would print out in the output document as an A within an accent over it.
This solution, although it works in some cases, will not necessarily work in all cases or may produce results which are not entirely desirable. For example, it may be desirable to have the accent appear in a higher vertical position over an upper case A and in a lower position in the vertical position within a line over a lower case a. Similarly, if, for example, the character graphic set of the output device being used contained only a period and did not contain a colon and it was desired to produce a colon in the printed document, this method would not allow a period to be overstruck with another period in a higher vertical position to produce a colon.
Thus, what is desired is an improved method by which composite or compound characters can be produced by multistriking two or more characters in the same character space which will allow a limited character set of an output device to be used to produce composite character graphics by use of individual character graphics found within the character set of the output device.